Quinceanera ceremony marks step to womanhood

View full sizeJohn Berry / The Post-StandardYaritza Anita Marisha Bague, of Liverpool, is escorted by her parents Diego and Ismaelita Bague, during her quinceanera ceremony held at St. John's Catholic Church in Clay.

Two stretch limos, one black, the other cream-colored, stopped side-by-side Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of St. John's Catholic Church in Clay.

Out poured 18 teenagers, the girls in pink dresses, the boys in white tuxes with black top hats and canes.

They were the court of honor for the guest of honor: Yaritza Anita Marisha Bague, 14, about to turn 15. And in the Hispanic cultural tradition, she celebrates her quinceanera, or Quince Anos -- her 15th birthday. As tradition goes, it is Yaritza's step from childhood to becoming a young woman.

Yaritza's big day started with the Mass at St. John's. It was to be capped with a nightlong reception at Wysocki's Lake Park Manor, an event also filled with the traditions of ending one stage of life and entering another.

The high heels on the pink pillow that were part of the church processional are slipped on Yaritza's feet by her father, Diego Bague, whose Puerto Rican roots led him to this day of his daughter. Symbolically, Yaritza kicks of her slippers and steps into womanhood.

"It means my little girl," said Bague, a Syracuse native, "enters womanhood. It's a big step for her, and it's also a big step for me. I have to treat her more like a woman than a little girl."

View full sizeJohn Berry / The Post-StandardYaritza Anita Marisha Bague is seated during her quinceanera ceremony at St. John's Catholic Church in Clay.

But for one day, Yaritza was a princess, with a pink ball gown, a court of her peers' pampering and presents.

The Rev. James T. O'Brien led the religious part of the tradition, an afternoon ceremony that started with Yaritza's court leading the processional, ending with a flower girl dropping flower petals followed by Yaritza with mom, Mayra, on one side and dad on the other.

"It's a very special day for all of us in the family," said Dorothy Huertas, Yaritza's maternal grandmother, who nervously laughed, "it's worse than a wedding."

And it is a friends-and-family event.

Before the ceremony, Loretta Buck and her daughter, Chelsea, 15, put the white and orange bows and ribbons on the ends of the church pews.

"Mayra is my good friend," said Buck. "She and I worked as teaching assistants in the Syracuse city schools until we were laid off. And (Chelsea) goes to school with Yaritza."

"I have been planning this since she was a little girl," said Mayra. "But really, though, for two years."

Mayra Bague said she didn't have such a big celebration because her parents were poor. Her daughter's celebration was to have 170 guests, including friends and family visiting from as far away as Puerto Rico, Miami and Chicago.

"It's really about lots of love," said Mayra. "Everyone comes together for this."

Following the Mass and before the party, there were photo sessions, relief that all got through it, and Yaritza reflecting, smiling as her new world swirled about her.

"Quinceanera is me becoming a woman," the young woman said. "It is when family and friends come to help me make that step. It's a big day you wait your whole life for this."